The Shroyer Family: Holiday Traditions

What a fun and memorable Thanksgiving we had this year.....I absolutely love when the holiday's come around and I really enjoy that we have chosen to be home for Thanksgiving again. Since we don't go to Florida during November, we get the chance to make the most out of the "thankful" holiday and for the 2nd year in a row, we made more out of it. Our "thankful" tree is started November 1st, so we have Ethan write something that he is thankful for each day and then we hang it on the tree. It is so fun to listen to his choices and to watch the tree bloom with various fall colored leaves that I cut out from my scrapbooking materials. I was really proud of him, because it wasn't that he was thankful for his toys or things like that, but things like God, his family, his grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles....he really thought about each and every leaf. So, Thanksgiving Day was his last leaf and he was thankful for "turkey" that day and I can say, so was I. LOL!! We went to my parents, since Brenton's parents go to Florida each year, and we had a great day! Of course the day was filled with a ton of food, coffee, and relaxation...but, my sister Clorissa and I got some crafts for the kids to do and we decided on "keepsake" ornaments and snowflakes! The kids had fun, I had fun listening to their answers they wrote down for the questions that were asked....it'll be fun looking back on those one day! I love things like that, but most of all, I love traditions.

sure am "thankful" for my "turkey's"

completed "Thankful" tree

so thankful for these kiddo's

making his ornament

making memories

One of our "new" traditions we started with the boys last year, was taking them to their favorite water park....CoCo Key! We love that place and usually go in January & March, but last year we went right after Thanksgiving and had a great time, so we decided to carry on that and make it a tradition each year...The boys had fun! Brenton's brother and his family joined us for the evening on Friday and it was so neat watching the boys play.....for the 1st time, Colin joined the group and I smiled as I watched Ethan, Dylan, AND Colin go up and down the steps to get to the slide! What a fun night!!

Sometime during the night, Chippey (our Elf) made his "snow" entrance to our room and left the boys some goodies and a note stating "I'm Back"!!!! So, we all woke up to a nice surprise and that starts Elf season....I am so looking forward to seeing what Chippey has in store this year?! Oh, for those of you that follow this blog probably realize our Elf name changed and yes, you are correct! Ethan and Colin, both love the movie An Elf's Story and it's based on The Elf on the Shelf, so "Chippey" is the Elf in the movie and we had to write Santa to see if it would be ok to give "Brutus" a first name of Chippey? Once we got the ok....our Elf got a new name Chippey Brutus the Elf! It has a nice ring to it, don't ya think!!! =)

our Thanksgiving tradition

Chippey came to visit us at the hotel

left a letter, too

the boys loved these "Elf" canes that Chippey made

After high school when Brenton and I were dating we had decided to start a tradition with Christmas ornaments. That year, we were talking about marriage, and knew we'd have many years to collect them. So from that time, we bought a meaningful ornament that represented that year and then on Christmas Eve we gave it as a gift. I remember telling him that one day I wanted to have a full size Christmas tree with nothing but those ornaments, so that each year we could be thankful for all the memories we created together! Well, this year, I'm happy to say we achieved it! I teared up when we put our tree up on Saturday, because each one brought back many memories of our lives and now that we have 2 boys, their yearly ornaments are hanging too. It was really a great night!!! Brenton made the comment as we stood back to look at the finished tree, "This is the best tree, yet" and I have to say I agree 100%.